The Grace of Kings

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This novel benefitted enormously from the critiques and suggestions of my beta-readers: Anatoly Belilovsky, Marty Bonus, Dario Ciriello, Anaea Lay, John P. Murphy, Erica Naone, Emma Osborne, Cindy Pon, Kenneth Schneyer, Alex Shvartsman, and Louis West. I can’t thank them enough. Every author should be so lucky as to have such insightful and forgiving friends.

I’m also grateful to my editor, Joe Monti, who believed in this book and helped me shape it to be closer to my vision through a multiyear process, and my agent, Russ Galen, who pried the manuscript out of my hands and found it a great publisher (and dealt with my worries and neurotic questions with unfailing patience). Everyone at Saga Press and Simon & Schuster has been a pleasure to work with, and their patience and good cheer in steering a new author through the book-launch process are very much appreciated.

Finally, the greatest share of credit must go to my wife, Lisa, who came up with the idea for this book with me, read and commented on numerous drafts, and supported me through the ups and downs of the writing process at great personal sacrifice. I hope someday my daughters will be able to read and enjoy this book that consumed so much of their father’s time when they were babies.